So my first weekend trip out to WV has been a moderate success. There were a few stumbles, but nothing that would make me change my mind on the idea.

Now, my plan for the next year is to drive out to WV and stay in the house for days or a week at a time so I can meet contractors, work on the house, etc. There are several things that have to happen for that to be possible:

• I have to be able to eat (and stay on my diet),
• I have to be able to take care of the dogs,
• I have to be comfortable live here (including sleep),
• I have to be able to work here.

I was able to stay on my diet these past couple days by packing along my preferred foods, and with the fridge being delivered today, I should be able to stick to the diet for even longer periods. And aside from being nervous about the new place, my dogs were not too much trouble (if either were too unhappy then that would put the kibosh on future trips).

As for living here, I do not yet have running water (I need a new waterline run from the meter to the house). This is going to be a problem when it comes to bathroom activities, particularly bathing. I also had trouble sleeping here, but that was mainly the result of the air mattress (twice) deflating in the middle of the night. (I’m going to replace it with a real mattress on a real bed.)

The one real sticking point is my ability to work. The Cricket 5G hot spot I bought last week is simply too unreliable and slow for work purposes. It struggles to stay connected to WP sites, and is not capable of streaming even a single episode of tv.

So I’ll need a new internet connection.

I also need to learn how to better manage my time; I had to keep running out to pick up just one thing (a tv to use as a second monitor, a charger for my laptop, a space heater). Shopping is 30 or more minutes away now, so that is an hour spent on each trip.

All in all, while I did not accomplish much this trip, I did at least work out most of the bugs and now I am reasonably sure that I will be able to accomplish more on the next trip.

P.S. The lead photo shows my work station. It is minimalist but usable.